As a trained geneticist, Ricki Lewis, author of a new book about gene therapy called The Forever Fix, wonders why some people develop mesothelioma from inhaling microscopic asbestos fibers and others do not. Determining the genetic variations that cause some people's cells to mutate and develop malignant mesothelioma tumors when exposed to asbestos may give medical research important insights about how to treat asbestos-related disease effectively, Lewis said.
Lewis, who has a Ph.D in genetics from Indiana University, said a current study led by medical researcher Jill Ohar of Wake Forest University is asking the right questions about mesothelioma and genetics. As part of a clinical trial, medical scientists are investigating whether a person's genes increase the risk of developing mesothelioma. The researchers are seeking to analyze the DNA of 2,000 people chronically exposed to asbestos, including 1,000 people who have developed mesothelioma and 1,000 who have not developed the disease despite asbestos exposure.
"She is asking what protected the 1,000, who didn't develop mesothelioma," Lewis said in an interview with Mesothelioma Help. "That way, researchers can identify the genes that protect people. Once we know the genes that protect people and we know how they work, then drug developers can develop drugs."
"Getting at the basis of why one person develops mesothelioma and another person doesn't, that is going to hold a clue to really fighting it," said Lewis, author of a widely used textbook on human genetics. "Then we will know what to do the gene therapy on."
Collaborators in the Wake Forest University-sponsored study include the University of Pennsylvania, Mayo Clinic, New York University School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins, Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.
Each year, approximately 2,500 to 3,000 people in the United States are diagnosed with mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lung and abdomen caused by inhaling asbestos. The disease is incurable, though there are treatments including chemotherapy, radiation and surgery.
Most people diagnosed with mesothelioma are older workers, retired workers or veterans who were exposed to asbestos fibers in the workplace or military service. Microscopic asbestos fibers when inhaled can lodge in the lungs and remain there a lifetime causing inflammation that eventually leads to asbestos related disease. Symptoms of asbestos disease including mesothelioma typically take 20 years to 40 years to appear.
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